This is a spinning top.

It is from Thebes.

Children played a game called ‘tipcat’ from the Middle Kingdom onwards (from about 4,000 years ago). They struck a short piece of wood on its tapered end to make it spring up, then they hit it whilst it was up in the air. The aim was to cover a set distance in a certain number of hits.

 

This is a spinning top. It is made from wood. It is probably over 2,000 years old, dating to the Roman period (30 BCE – 395 CE).